Power in the Pulpit | Matthew 20:20–28

Intro: Thank you to the worship team from Mount Olive for leading us tonight. We always appreciate when y’all come out and lead for us. If you have a bible with you tonight, you can flip to Matthew 20. We are going to be looking at verses 20-28 tonight. For those that I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet, my name is Gabe Thomas. I serve as a campus minister with the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. I want to start tonight with a question. What does it mean to be great? I’m a big sports fan, so I hear these debates all the time of who is the greatest of all time in any particular sport. The most common one obviously is the Jordan or Lebron debate which I’m not going to get into here because I will get side tracked so quickly. But there’s others that are similar. What is the greatest team of all time? We do it with other things. Who is the greatest U.S. President of all time? Is it Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson or maybe some other. But we never define great. I think what probably makes someone great, is that they stand out above the rest. In tonight’s text we will see that greatness is not sought, but is found through service. We will see this in a selfish request, an explanation of greatness and the example of greatness. If you would please stand and honor the reading of God’s Word.

Matthew 20:20-23.

Exposition: The passage starts when we read in verse 20 Matthew 20:20 “Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.” The sons of Zebedee were the disciples John and James. John and James were two of the three disciples along with Peter that were closest with Jesus. Based on what we read about the women that followed Jesus and were there at the cross and went to the tomb and found the empty grave, James and John’s mother was likely the sister of Jesus’ mother. So this is somebody familiar to Jesus approaching him. She comes and kneels before him. Though this is somebody younger than her, she shows reverence by kneeling to him. But Matthew tells us she did that before she asked him for something. Matthew makes it clear, she is doing this because she wants something. Going on to verse 21 we read, Matthew 20:21 “And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”” So now their mother puts it all out there. She asks that in Jesus’ kingdom if one son can sit on Jesus right and one on his left.

Explanation: She wasn’t just asking for them to have a good view of everything that was going on. In this age, the right hand of the king was the most honorable place besides being king. The left side was the second most honorable. What James and John’s mother is doing here, she is trying to get for her sons the most honorable place in the kingdom. She probably also had a reason to think that Jesus would grant this for her, I mean it was his first cousins she was asking for. But it also shows that she didn’t understand what Jesus; kingdom was. It wasn’t an earthly kingdom that so many thought Jesus had come to restore, it was not of this world. It was a spiritual kingdom that would go beyond this world. We see Jesus’ response in the next verse.

Exposition: Matthew 20:22 “Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”” The first thing we see is that right away Jesus sees through this as being a request that came from James and John’s mother and not from them. When he uses the word you there, he actually uses the plural form of it, showing he was address James and John directly as the ones who had made the request.Which, let’s just go off topic for a second. This isn’t necessarily a part of the sermon, but is probably good life practice. Don’t have your parents ask for you to have the greatest job in your life. Am I right? Probably not the wisest move in the world. He asks them if they are able to drink the cup from which he is going to drink. In the Old Testament, the idea of cup often has to do with one’s destiny, particularly relating to wrath and suffering. John and James show they do not understand the nature of Jesus’ kingdom. In verses 17-19, we read that Jesus told them he was going to be crucified and then rise on the third day. But clearly they don’t want to hear that. They are only thinking about this guy they think is going to be King over all of Israel. They will do what he does. They naively respond, “ we are able.”

Application: You see they had in their mind what they wanted. They in their mind knew exactly how this was going to work out. There is something dangerous when we allow our own ambitions to get in the way of what God is telling us. We must be sensitive to what God calls us so that we don’t mistake our plan for God’s plan. The only way to do this is to surrender our will to what God would have for us. It’s to pray that God would humble us to the point that we hear what he has to say to us.

Exposition: Jesus responds in verse 23 by saying Matthew 20:23 “He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”” Jesus tells James and John that they would in fact drink from the same cup as him, but he did not have the authority to give what they are asking. The Father had already granted that, and it was His to give. James and John would in fact endure the cup that Jesus drank. James was the first of the apostles to be martyred. We read in the book of Acts that Herod had him killed. John would be boiled in hot tar and then sent to the island of Patmos as an exile. They indeed endured the suffering that came to Jesus. But yet, that did not guarantee them what they were asking for. The Father has sent the Son into the World. It was the Father who at this point had the authority to assign those spots. Ultimate honor and authority was restored to Jesus at his resurrection. But it appears that at this point he had given that up as part of coming to earth.

Application: Why did James and John have to suffer this way if they were not given those spots int he Kingdom? It’s because they were following Jesus. When we follow Jesus in this world, the world will treat us as it treated Jesus. More and more in our culture, the Christian assumption that was there for so long is now gone. There may not be anybody in this room that goes through what James and John or even believers around the world have to go through. But there will be rejection, there will be mocking. There will be lots of things that come with following Jesus that are not pleasant. But we do it because Jesus is Lord of our lives. We endure out of understanding that he is King, but also because we understand that his promises are true. That if we endure the cup, we will also enjoy the Kingdom.

Transition: So we see Jesus shoot down the idea that James and John had about being placed in the greatest spots of honor. How did it go when the other disciples found out, it went about as well as you probably think it would go.

Exposition: We read in verse 24 Matthew 20:24 “And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers.” Now, there’s nothing to suggest that the other disciples were mad that James and John were trying to take advantage of Jesus or anything like that. We can assume that because Jesus corrects everybody starting in verse 25. It seems more likely that they were jealous or even upset that the men were trying to get ahead of the rest of them.

Illustration: How many of you have ever worked in a children’s Sunday School class or in children’s church. Or maybe you have worked at a camp with kids or in a preschool or daycare. I have two words for you. Line leader. If you want to know what these disciples were acting like I just need to say the word line leader. There is nothing more upsetting to little kids than when they don’t get chosen as line leader. And the thing is, there really is nothing that makes anybody more qualifying to be line leader. Maybe you don’t want to put the kid that always gets in trouble as line leader, but other than that, whoever is the line leader is the line leader. But kids get so upset when you pick somebody other than them. That’s kind of how I picture this whole scenario going. Once the disciples found out what James and John did, they were like, what no I want to be at the right hand and left hand. It’s not fair they asked because I wanted it. It’s not fair they are your cousins they shouldn’t have done that. My wife teaches first and second grade sunday school, but when our daughter is sick, I have to fill in which means I have to endure the line leader drama so I can picture this all in my head. But Jesus puts a stop to it right away.

Exposition: In verse 25 we read, Matthew 20:25 “But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.”

Explanation: The time period that Jesus was speaking into was during the Roman occupation of Israel. The Romans occupied land as far east as the middle east and as far West as the British Isles. And they understood how to keep their grasp. The time period that Jesus walked the earth during was the Pax Romana, or the Roman Peace. Now this peace did not come about because people were just a little bit more mellow during this time and really didn’t want to resort to violence. That’s not it at all. Instead, it was that the Romans left no question to who was in charge. They put in place governors whose main job was to maintain control over the people. There was a reason that those who were seen as revolutionaries suffered the very public and gruesome death of crucifixion. Roman leaders made no secret of who was in charge. Jesus wanted his followers to know that was not how they were to act. That’s how they exercised and showed their perceived greatness. But Jesus wanted his followers to know that is not how they would be great.

Exposition: We read in verses 26 and 27 Matthew 20:26-27Exposition: We read in verses 26 and 27 Matthew 20:26-27 “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,” There are two different roles that Jesus brings up here. The first is a servant. This is someone that was paid, but they were paid to keep the household up. It was not a prestigious job. The only role that was lower than this was that of a slave. Slavery was extremely prevalent in this time. I’ve read a number before that half of all people in the Roman empire were slaves. When one was a slave he or she had no rights whatsoever. Jesus is telling them that if they want to be great, they need to voluntarily make themselves slaves.

Application: When you look at your life, how are you pursuing greatness? Right now you are all in the point of life where you are figuring out what you want the direction of your life to go? Some of you want to pick a career that you can make good money? You know what? There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. I hope you make it big and become a big supporter of Gordon State BCM. But in all seriousness, what’s your goal with your money? Is it nice things that show others how you have made it? Or do you have the goal of helping others. Some of you want to have a career where you are a manager or CEO. Once again, nothing wrong with that. But why do you want to be the person in charge. Is it so you can serve those that work with you and give them a Godly leader to follow? Or is it because you want to be in charge? If we are going to seek the greatness that Jesus describes here, we have to be service minded, and it makes sense why, doesn’t it? What is going to have the greatest impact for the kingdom. Is it if Christ followers pursue ambition over everything else

Matthew 20:24-27.

Verse 24

They were mad out of jealousy

Verse 25

Gentiles used harsh rule to maintain power and authority

Verses 26 and 27

Servant-Hired worker who maintained master’s household. Slave was someone forced into service and had no rights of his own. These were the two lowest positions in Jewish society.

Transition: Jesus tells us that the ultimate example of greatness is one making themselves less than. But who actually does that, right. Who actually humbles themselves in this way, well, Jesus tells us of one who did.

Matthew 20:28.

Jesus saw himself as the ultimate example of this greatness.

Was the creator God who had always existed. Enjoyed perfect communion with the Father and the honor that came with being God. Surrendered all of that to come to earth.

Lutron- the price of release often paid to release slaves

anti-in place of and signifies the notion of the exchange and substitution of Jesus’ life on the cross for all those who accepted his payment for sins.

Jesus came and died for our sins, and for that he is given the position of greatness. (Isaiah 53:10-12)

Conclusion; As we close tonight, I want you to think about where you are going? Are you pursuing greatness according to what the world and our pride tells us greatness is, or are you pursuing greatness in the way that Christ defines it. Are you looking towards the example of Jesus who laid down his life for our sins. But maybe you are not even a believer here tonight. Maybe you have not allowed Jesus to take away your sins. Maybe you don’t have the assurance that comes with a life in Christ. Don’t let tonight pass if that is you.